Beckham was being paid about 3.3 Million for this season. Football is a terrible way to make a living.
Very few get rich. You have to believe that if Beckham would have had any skill with a baseball bat he could have earned $300 Million or more playing baseball over 15-17 seasons and possibly as much as 700-800 Million if he had power. As it stands if his career in the NFL is over after 3+ seasons he might have made $10 -12 million. Total. Utility players in their 7th season make that much in MLB to play 90 -100 games.
I'd think there are at least 40 -60 Backs and receivers throughout the NFL that are significantly better athletes than almost anyone in baseball and at least 400 that are better or equal to most. If only 5% to 10% could hit it would turnover about 15-20% of MLB position players and the game would be significantly more athletic.
Baseball would be wise to aggressively pursue getting the game more poplar with African Americans by touting its new found diversity of the last 20 years. Jeter in Ownership will help as would Magic Johnson hoisting a World Series trophy in LA. New emerging stars such as Judge, Correa, Altuve and others will be the faces of the game over the next decade. When kids start hearing about the $400+ million that someone like Harper or Machado is going to get from the Sox or Yanks it has to turn some heads. If the Dodgers, Cubs and Mets also become players for these guys you might even see $500 Million. Imagine that - one of them could earn in one month what Beckham earned in his entire NFL career.
For the first time in 40 years baseball has a chance to take football on and reverse the trend - they should do everything they can now while the opportunity is there.